10 Most Tragic Overdoses of Celebrity Addicts

When Amy Winehouse died on Saturday at the young age of 27, the beehived, tattooed singer-songwriter with a throwback voice and history of drug and alcohol addiction became the latest member of the unlucky “27 Club.” This group includes musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison who eerily all passed away at the same young age, many of whose deaths were drug-related. (While an autopsy has yet to reveal the cause of Winehouse’s untimely passing, it’s widely assumed drugs played a role.)

But making it past age 27 doesn’t guarantee immunity from the life-threatening dangers of drug addiction. Here’s a look back at the cherished stars who most infamously lost their lives to battles with drugs and alcohol.

Marilyn Monroe

The legendary sex symbol and film star died of an overdose of barbiturates in 1962. Monroe, 36, had attempted suicide four times before. She had an erratic personal life filled with highs and lows: Monroe was married and divorced three times, including to baseball star Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller; she abused drugs, including sleeping pills and alcohol.

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Judy Garland

After her first performance at the New Grand Theater in Grand Rapids, Minn., at the ripe young age of 30 months old, Garland went on to star in 35 films and countless live performances, even setting a New York vaudeville record. She died at age 47, in 1969, of an overdose of barbiturates. Throughout her life, she had a rocky relationship with fame, and the Wizard of Oz star, known for her lively performances, became hooked on stimulants and depressants when she was a young Hollywood starlet. “They'd give us pep pills. Then they'd take us to the studio hospital and knock us cold with sleeping pills... after four hours they'd wake us up and give us the pep pills again,” Garland told McCall’s magazine. “That's the way we worked, and that's the way we got thin. That's the way we got mixed up. And that's the way we lost contact."

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Jimi Hendrix

The famed electric guitarist died after overdosing on sleeping pills in 1970. Just 27 years old, Hendrix was at the height of his musical career, having headlined the 1969 Woodstock music festival. He was also a heavy drug user, especially of the psychedelic drug LSD. Musician Eric Clapton, a close friend of Hendrix’s, remembered the legend in his memoir, Clapton: The Autobiography: “He had this enormous gift and a fantastic technique, like that of someone who spent all day playing and practicing, yet he didn’t seem that aware of it. I also got to see the playboy in him. He loved to spend all night hanging out, getting drunk or stoned, and when he did pick up the guitar, it was very throwaway to him, as if he didn’t take himself too seriously.”

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Janis Joplin

The “Piece of My Heart” singer died after she overdosed on heroin at age 27 in a Los Angeles motel room, just 16 days after her friend Jimi Hendrix also overdosed. Known for uninhibited performances (often fueled by alcohol and drugs), the Queen of Rock and Roll paved the way for female musicians in an otherwise male-dominated industry. Stevie Nicks commented on Joplin’s influence: “I only saw Janis Joplin one time on a hot summer day in San Jose, California, at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds… She was extraordinary. She had a connection with the audience that I had not seen before, and when she left the stage, I knew that a little bit of my destiny had changed. In a blink of an eye, she changed my life .”

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Jim Morrison

The Doors frontman who rocked the musical world in the 1960s with his leather pants and sexy swagger became yet another member of the infamous “27 Club” when he died in 1971. Although no autopsy was performed, Morrison is thought to have died of a heroin overdose. The rocker, who graduated from the film school at the University of California at Los Angeles, was also a celebrated poet who self-published two poetry collections and would often break into spontaneous verse during his concerts.

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Elvis Presley

Although reports of fanatics who claim to have spotted “The King” are a common occurrence, Presley died in 1977 at his Graceland home in Tennessee at the age of 42. Toxicologists noted at least eight different barbiturates and narcotics in his body at the time, according to People. Presley, who burst onto the music scene in the 1950s with his twangy voice and thrusting hips, had been a longtime abuser of prescription drugs.

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John Belushi

The funnyman and member of the original Saturday Night Live cast died in 1982 after injecting a speedball, a combination of cocaine and heroin. Despite numerous attempts at recovery, the comedian was found dead in a bungalow at the celebrity favorite Los Angeles hotel, Chateau Marmont. Belushi, who also starred in Animal House and recorded albums with his band, The Blues Brothers, was 33 years old.

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River Phoenix

After shooting to fame in the 1986 classic film Stand by Me, Phoenix died in 1993 at just 23 years of age, outside of the Viper Room club on Los Angeles’s Sunset Strip. Rumors first began of drug use when Phoenix filmed My Own Private Idaho, in which he played a gay hustler to critical acclaim. His death, from an overdose of cocaine and morphine, firmly secured his place in pop culture as a talented actor who died too early.

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Chris Farley

The heavyset comedian, who bounced in and out of rehab and frequently binged on food, alcohol, and drugs, finally succumbed to his addiction when he overdosed on cocaine and morphine in Chicago in 1997. According to his brother Tom Farley’s book, The Chris Farley Show, Chevy Chase gave Farley a stern warning before a Saturday Night Live reunion show, saying, "Look, you're not John Belushi. And when you overdose or kill yourself, you will not have the same acclaim that John did… You'll be a blip in the New York Times obituaries page, and that'll be it. Is that what you want?"

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Heath Ledger

The 28-year-old Ledger died in New York City in 2008 after a drug overdose that resulted from accidentally mixing prescription drugs oxycodone, Vicodin, Valium, Xanax, and others. (He posthumously won an Oscar a couple of months later for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight.) Ledger’s struggles with alcohol and drugs may have led to his divorce from actress Michelle Williams, who urged Ledger to enter a rehab facility in 2006, according to Us Weekly. Now, the actor’s death is a cautionary tale about the potentially fatal effects of combining drugs.

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